Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri is excited for his team's future after they "dominated Real Madrid for 55 minutes" in Tuesday's 3-1 Champions League round-of-16 second-leg defeat.

The Italian side produced an immense display in the first half and took the game to the defending European champions, deservedly going ahead through the in-form Dries Mertens, who also hit the post.

But Madrid fought back early in the second half through two Sergio Ramos headers, the second of which took a hefty deflection off Mertens, before sealing the 6-2 aggregate win in stoppage time through Alvaro Morata.

Sarri saw plenty of reasons to be optimistic, though.

"We get the feeling we are not that far off [the top clubs]," Sarri told Mediaset Premium. "We dominated the best team in the world for 55 minutes.